


Getting In Touch With Your Inner Hulk

by weatheredlaw



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Established Relationship, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-22
Updated: 2012-06-22
Packaged: 2017-11-08 07:20:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/440625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weatheredlaw/pseuds/weatheredlaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes she understands what Tony saw first. Sometimes she sees what only <i>she</i> can see, what <i>she</i> saw the first time they met. </p><p>Usually, Pepper looks at Bruce and isn't sure what she sees at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Getting In Touch With Your Inner Hulk

**Author's Note:**

> Continuing on with this series. Please enjoy.

Clint was the one who'd invented Hulk Sparring. 

It's a dangerous game, but when one considers the people who enjoy playing it the most, then "danger" becomes sort of relative. The idea is very simple, the rules rather malleable:

The first step is to, obviously, bring in the Hulk. Afterwards, anything is sort of on the table -- except for bullets. "Pepper says no bullets," Bruce had told them. Natasha was the only one outwardly disappointed. 

The second step is the get the Hulk's attention, because Bruce had explained from the start that without focus, the Hulk was a demolition crew on two green legs, with about the same amount of communication skills. It could be the most time consuming part of the game, and if it doesn't go well, the Hulk can get bored and pissed off and either crush something, or shift back into Bruce, which can be a little disconcerting and worrisome, if a certain Norse God isn't a hundred percent aware of the rules all the time. 

The final step, after the Hulk is focused and secure, is to fight him. 

This last step often proves to be far more difficult than many imagine. 

 

 

The team Hulk Spars every Tuesday at nine for three hours, if things go well. Afterwards, Bruce needs to be fed twice as much food as he usually eats and drink possibly lethal amounts of water before he can be convinced to anything more strenuous than blink. The Turkish restaurant down the street is very happy about the business. 

"They could probably only deliver to us on Tuesdays and retire in Hawaii," Clint says after a particularly successful session. He hands Bruce another plate of baba ganoush. "You should employ them."

Tony shakes his head. "I don't buy restaurants." Clint raises an eyebrow. "Pepper says I'm not 'allowed to' anymore." 

"The ol' ball and chain."

"You're talking about Tony, right?" Bruce asks. Tony steals the rest of his chicken. 

"Don't talk with your mouth full."

 

 

No one talks about what it means if Bruce changes in the middle of dinner, or the middle of the afternoon when everyone is napping or reading or not prepared to guard their living rooms against major property damage. Pepper has spreadsheets on what everything would cost to replace, if not for herself, then to ease Bruce's mind when he starts to get flighty.

Pepper is always surprised when she walks in on the latest Hulk Sparring match looking for Bruce, only to find the Other Guy in his place. It's off-putting and makes it hard, later, to differentiate them when Bruce is doing more delicate tasks. She tries to imagine the Hulk handling a micropipette, transferring cell cultures or making repairs to Tony's arc reactor. He has surgeon's hands, confident and thin. But he has something else nesting in his body and it makes Pepper wonder where all that calmness comes from. She can't believe the only secret is a constant, seething anger. She just can't. 

"Have you ever tried meditation?" Bruce peers over his glasses at her, pulling off a pair of gloves in a way that shouldn't make her shiver. 

"Tony paid for yoga classes a few years ago. The instructor has a restraining order against me." She distracts herself by changing the wallpaper on her Blackberry. Bruce comes over and leans against the table across from her.

"That's a story I'd like to hear."

"Maybe when you're older." She gives up and looks at him. Sometimes she understands what Tony saw first. Sometimes she sees what only _she_ can see, what _she_ saw the first time they met. 

Usually, Pepper looks at Bruce and isn't sure what she sees at all.

"I could teach you." 

"I'm sure you could." 

Pepper realizes only too late that Bruce is most definitely trying to seduce her.

She pulls off his glasses and lets him lift her onto the table, curling her legs around him and letting her heels hit the floor. She threads her fingers through his hair, holding him close while he kisses her neck and shoulders, nosing her sweater out of the way. 

"How are you so good at it?" she murmurs. He pulls back, grinning in a way that is so different from Tony, but makes her think of him all the same.

"Lots of practice." He kisses her nose. 

"I meant...staying like _this_." She touches his shirt, right over his heart, curling her fingers around it. He breathes, tilting his head back and closing his eyes. "It's okay," she says. "You don't--"

"You don't buy the 'always angry' bit, do you?"

"I'm sure it's true." She kisses him. "It can't be good, you know."

"It probably isn't. But we can't all blow something up to make ourselves feel better." He throws a glance toward the corner of the lab, roped off after Tony's last bout with the video phone which wouldn't, apparently, leave him the fuck alone while he was trying to work because _fuck_.

"You should probably steer clear of my office then."

"I _have_ heard it's kind of a war zone." 

"Teach me to meditate then?"

"I can do that."

"Good." She matches him, grin for grin. "Sex first, though."

"I like how you think."

 

 

Operation: Meditation is hardly in full swing when the peace party is crashed by Tony and a barrage of Asgardian warriors. Pepper is practicing her deep breathing. It isn't working.

"Our insurance covers one Norse deity at a time, Tony."

"Okay, yes? I hear you? But these are very cool people who are, apparently, Thor's best friends. And he's super lonely and Jane's, what, in Nepal?"

"Amsterdam," Bruce corrects.

"Whatever. She won't be back for a few days and Thor got lonely and accidentally on purpose zapped a couple of friends here. This is Sif, you'll probably be really good friends. And, uh, these are the other three." Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg ogle Pepper in her yoga pants for a second before turning to Bruce. And suddenly he's being tossed between hands larger than his face.

"This is him! The Green Beast our friend has spoken so fondly of!" Hogun wraps him in a hug. Bruce breathes deep. Pepper looks on in admiration. 

"Ah, uh, don't _manhandle_ the Green Beast or whatever, okay?" Tony asks, trying unsuccessfully to pry Hogun’s hands off of Bruce's shoulders. Sif smacks him and Bruce tumbles to the ground into Tony's arms. It'd be romantic if he wasn't _wheezing._

"Good to meet you, too," he manages, taking a deep breath. 

"What's happening here?" Tony looks between them. Bruce is wearing a shirt he stole from Tony's dresser and a pair of ancient linen pants and it'd be a total and complete lie to say he isn't 100% turned on by the clothing decisions Bruce and Pepper have made between the two of them.

"Bruce is teaching me to meditate," Pepper explains. 

"Ah, this is the rather frustrating exercise we have all attempted to do many times," Thor says. "It is rather difficult."

"Not if you try, buddy." Bruce claps him on the arm. "Maybe we'll do a one-on-one sesh later this month, hmm?"

"Is this activity a _challenge_?" Fandral has his hands over his hips and looks pretty damn insulted that no one asked him to meditate this morning. Pepper breathes deeply into her palm. "I should like to try it." Bruce raises an eyebrow.

"Okay."

"So shall we, then," Sif announces. "Show us, Green Beast." 

"Yeah, Green Beast. _Show us._ " Tony's face is threatening to divide in half. Pepper continues to be more than impressed with Bruce's handle of the situation. 

"Everyone take a seat." The floor trembles a little as all four gods drop to their asses on the floor with Tony falling in next to Bruce. 

What proceeds can only be described as something Pepper will have to get the security footage of from JARVIS. It might be a universal first -- Bruce Banner teaching four Norse deities, a superhero, and a CEO how to control their breathing, get in touch with their inner happy place, and clear their minds of any distractions. Pepper's never been around this much _silence_ before. And she's definitely not doing it right because she's definitely got to pee. Like, really bad. 

She peaks out of one eye and catches Tony watching Bruce, who is completely and totally separated from this entire space, his face placid and body almost completely still. Tony is chewing on his lip the way he does when he wants something _bad_ and eventually slips from the room, probably because he respects Bruce too much to grope him mid-meditation. Pepper closes her eyes again and focuses on her breathing. 

 

 

Thor, as it turns out, rather enjoyed meditating with his friends, and Pepper catches them doing it at random intervals throughout the day. Norse deities, apparently, have a lot of emotional baggage. Not something you really think about, but whatever. Bruce actually finds it fascinating, and he quizzes them after, making notes on his tablet and checking their pulse rate. He adds the work to the tests he's been running on Thor for weeks now, mainly isolating the differences between his DNA and the DNA of other Scandinavians he can find. Other Scandinavians being Clint.

"My mother was _half-Norwegian_ , doc. Ask Selvig."

"He's on shore leave," Bruce mutters, barely listening. "Hold _still_ for five seconds, Jesus." Clint scowls and makes faces at Steve, who is watching from across the table. "And stop _ogling_ one another. It's gross."

"You're just jealous, doc." 

"Yes, that's exactly what it is. I'm _green_ with envy." Steve laughs. "You're next, by the way. I know where your grandparents are from."

"That's...disturbing, actually." But Steve submits his arm for bloodletting all the same. Pepper curls up on the couch Bruce made Tony buy him for their one-month anniversary, mostly because Tony wouldn't shut up about Bruce being in a stable relationship with something other than a microscope for more than a week -- and because he likes big ugly sofas.

"Sorry, but I didn't authorize a Red Cross party for this month, did I?" Tony comes in and sets a package down on one of the workbenches. "This came for you, sweet cheeks." 

Bruce looks at Tony with a patience largely reserved for four year olds. "I'll only say it one more time. Please. Stop calling me that."

"Can I call you that?" Clint asks. Bruce jerks the needle out of his arm. "Wow, _sorry_." 

"You can go." He turns back to Steve. "Unless you're into this sort of thing." Clint grumbles for a bit, but settles in to harass Steve while Bruce finishes drawing his blood. Bruce makes gagging noises until it's over and ushers the two of them out. "Someone tell me Natasha is coming back from Lebanon soon."

"Stop judging."

"Not judging," Bruce says, shaking his head. "Begging. Begging for her swift return." He labels the vials of blood and stores them. "JARVIS, when is Dr. Selvig due back in town?"

"At the end of next month, sir."

"It'll have to do."

"What are you even doing?" Pepper asks.

"Science," he answers non-commitally. 

"He's looking for the origins of human life," Tony says brightly. Bruce shrugs. "It's a noble quest, Dr. Banner. Would you perhaps like to continue your search? In my pants?" 

"Oh, absolutely, Mr. Stark." Bruce rolls his eyes, but he kisses Tony anyway. "Absolutely."

Pepper admires the view from the couch.

 

 

It was probably only a matter of time before Bruce's carefully constructed net of peace and rage burned out underneath him. Tony built him a kind of panic room, something stronger than Fury's cage and easily accessible from his room and his lab. 

And it was probably only a matter of time before Bruce got shifty, ducking out on sleepovers and spending more and more time by himself, drawn inward and snapping whenever Tony tried to pry him out.

"He's not used to people looking after him," Pepper had tried to say. "He just needs some space." But Tony had been worried, and with good reason, now, Pepper realizes. 

And honestly, Pepper isn't sure what the hell SHIELD was thinking when they asked General Ross to come to New York. Bruce comes back from the meeting strung out and ringing his hands. He won't talk about it. He won't talk to anyone, and when Tony presses him about what happened, Bruce flies not-so-gracefully off the handle, lashing out at Tony so forcefully, he _flinches_. 

It's a first, for Tony.

Pepper is sort of amazed that Bruce makes it to the room, that he manages to get away from them both without losing it right there in the living room. She hears a distant rumble, but there's no breaking glass, nothing crashing through the floor. Tony says quietly, "I think it works." He looks like a kicked dog. But that's sort of what you get, Pepper realizes, when you stick your hand in the fire. 

A very temperamental, emotionally unbalanced, way too smart for its own good fire. 

Eventually, they go upstairs to find the Hulk pacing in his box. His face is pained and it makes Pepper sick to her stomach because there is definitely a war happening underneath that skull. There is definitely a push and pull of wants and needs and can't-haves happening and she just wants to give Bruce the answer and make it go away. 

"I should get the suit," Tony murmurs, but he doesn't move. He's watching the Hulk with a bizarre fascination that doesn't become him. Pepper realizes he's reaching for her hand, so she takes it, drawing them both closer to the glass. 

"Bruce?" He doesn't respond. The ground trembles under her feet. " _Bruce._ " 

And now he looks at her, like maybe somewhere Bruce heard her. Pepper kicks off her shoes and sits on the ground, crossing her legs and closing her eyes. She breathes, just the way he taught her. She focuses on that one breath coming in, uncurling like a ribbon inside of her, tapping a little bell when it peaks and curling in on itself as she exhales. Over and over again, she rings that bell until she is only her breath, only this moment. She is aware that Tony is coming to sit next to her, and she can hear him begin to breathe deeply and purposefully. 

Pepper feels the Hulk settle, dropping to the ground as carefully as he can. He begins to breathe, but Pepper doesn't open her eyes. She just keeps focusing, keeps on breathing until time gets away. 

"Great session guys." Pepper opens her eyes to find Bruce sitting behind the glass across from her, smiling for the first time in days. Tony looks like he's about to cry. "Best one yet," he croaks.

"Jesus Christ." Tony stands and goes to the door, punching in the code and dragging Bruce out. "You scared the hell out of me."

"I'm sorry." 

"You should be," Tony mutters, but the quip doesn't quite reach his eyes. He has his hands over Bruce's arms, trailing over his chest and through his hair, just making sure he's really there. "Here." He fishes around in a box near the door and pulls out of a pair of sweat pants. "Post-Hulk sweats."

"I knew sleeping with you would have its perks." Bruce pulls the pants on and finally turns to Pepper. She gets up on shaky feet and lets him wrap his arms around her. "You made him _meditate_. How did you ever manage that?"

"I have this kick-ass instructor."

"He sounds like a real catch." Tony comes up behind him and kisses the back of his neck.

"Yeah. He is."

 

 

Bruce treats Pepper like he owes her the world, and maybe he does. She strips out of her clothes while Tony watches Bruce drag his tongue down the length of her body before he eats her out. Pepper pulls on his hair, her legs curled tight around the back of his neck. She's ready, she's going to come, she's _telling him_ she's going to come -- 

He pulls back and Pepper swears and makes very convincing death threats.

"What the _actual_ hell?" 

Bruce kisses her, curling a hand over one of her breasts as he does. He pulls away and murmurs in her ear, "Fuck him." It sends a shiver down her spine the way it always does when Bruce gets pushy and vulgar in bed. The way he'll sometimes lean over and surprise her and say something wicked and awful that sends her over the edge. Pepper nods and straddles Tony, lowering herself onto him. She feels Bruce fall in behind her, his hand gently forcing her to lean over, grasping Tony's arms for support. She hears a cap behind her being opened and not a few seconds later Tony's eyes go wide.

" _Fuck_ me sideways, what--"

"Maybe later," Bruce says. Pepper feels him against her back, his breath hot and wet on her ear. He fingers Tony slowly until Pepper comes, Tony's thumb rubbing circles over her clit. She pulls away and rolls onto her back, watching Bruce's fingers piston in and out of Tony's ass faster. She sits up and leans close to Bruce's ear.

"Fuck him."

"Oh my God I hate you both," Tony gasps, but he keeps trying to feel more of Bruce, trying to force him in deeper. "Do what she says, do it right now or so help me God I will end you--"

"He's cute when he's needy," Bruce mutters, groaning as Pepper rolls a condom over his dick.

"If that's what you're into," Pepper says, kissing him. She bites his lip. "Deep breaths, Dr. Banner."

"Wow, uh, I think we've meditated enough today? I'm sure you'd both agree so just _holy shit_ okay, okay. Yep. That's...yeah." Bruce fucks him in earnest, hiking one of Tony's legs over his shoulder and rolling his hips. Tony isn't quite aware of when he needs to shut the fuck up and just go with it, so Pepper quiets him with a kiss and appreciates the slew of profanities he bites against her mouth. 

Tony comes first, gripping the back of Pepper's head tight for a second while she bites on his neck. Bruce is close, she can tell from his stuttering rhythm. His eyes are closed and his mouth is open and he finally comes with a shout, balancing himself with his hands on either side of Tony as he pulls out. Tony wipes come off his stomach with the corner of the bed sheet. Bruce pulls off his condom and ties it off, letting it drop to the floor.

"Rude," Tony mutters.

"I told you to put a garbage can by your bed."

"And disgusting. You are absolutely filthy, Dr. Banner."

"Shut up and go to bed, both of you." Pepper forces Bruce to lay next to her. She feels Tony's arm stretch around, hears Bruce hum as Tony scrubs the top of his head. Tony pulls a blanket over them and Pepper pillows her head in the crook of Bruce's arm. 

"Deep breaths everyone," Tony murmurs. 

Bruce huffs a laugh against the top of Pepper's head. "In through your nose and out through your mouth." Pepper shakes her head and closes her eyes, focusing on the sound of both of them breathing. 

The ribbon uncurls and taps the bell. 

 

 

In the morning, Tony almost sets off the fire alarm in his fifth failed attempt at breakfast without waking either of them up. Pepper stays in bed, kicking Bruce in the shin as he pulls back the blanket, once he smells something burning. In the kitchen, he takes the spatula out of Tony's hand. 

"You let me do that, okay?"

Tony looks hurt, but he gives in and lets Bruce cook the rest of breakfast. "Can't even do something nice for a guy, can I?" 

Bruce looks at him very seriously and sets the spatula down, shoving the eggs off their burner. He grips Tony's face and pulls him in for a long, burning kiss, pushing him against the counter, hands slipping under his shirt. He drags his nails over Tony's sides and dips one hand below the waistband of his sweats. 

"You are nothing but nice to me, you know that don't you?"

"Are you giving me, like, a thank you blow job?"

"Is that what you want?"

"I could go with that, yeah."

Bruce blows him in the kitchen, swallowing when he comes. "Thank you," he murmurs against Tony's mouth.

"I mean, thank _you_." Tony grins and they make out for a long while until Pepper makes herself known from the doorway.

"Eggs, Bruce."

"Yes, ma'am."

 

 

Sometime around two, Thor and his friends show up in the kitchen and Bruce takes them down to the gym for their breathing exercises and because he promised Volstagg a while back he could Hulk Spar without the rest of the team around. Tony and Pepper spend the morning in bed, listening to the sound of the Hulk kicking Volstagg's ass.

"It's a better sound than yesterday," she murmurs.

"Everything is better than what happened yesterday." Tony kisses the top of her head. "Except for that last bit. I enjoyed that." He smiles. "I enjoyed you."

A couple hours later, they head upstairs to see Thor's friends off. Jane is coming back and Earth just doesn't have the same appeal to Thor's friends as it does to him.

"Next time you get some vacation days don't forget to swing by," Tony says, shaking each of their hands in turn. 

"We had a marvelous time," Sif says, bowing. "We especially enjoyed our time with the doctor." She nods toward Bruce. "We have finally been able to get in touch with our inner Green Beast," she explains. The little crew turns and gets ready to head back home. Pepper hears Sif's words over and over against in her head. It makes her smile.

She thinks about deep breathing and quiet spaces and Bruce so far away, but still so near. She thinks about the Hulk, breathing and letting Bruce float back to the surface. 

_We have finally been able to get in touch with our inner Green Beast._

So have we, she thinks to herself. So have we.


End file.
